Little Temptations
by The Melon Lord Approves
Summary: Katara is having a hard time keeping her hands to herself. To be fair, it's her own fault for dancing with him. KW2013


**Title-** Little Temptations**  
Author-** Melon**  
Rating-** K+**  
Summary-** Katara is having a hard time keeping her hands to herself. To be fair, it's her own fault for dancing with him.

**A/N-** Just a note, each of my Kataang Week prompts will be posted separately rather than as a collected work at this time. I may compile them as a single collection later, but for the time being they will not be part of the same posted work. Today's oneshot is unabashedly sappy, because I am a complete sucker for teh fluff.

* * *

**Day 1: Hands**

* * *

Katara was having a hard time keeping her hands to herself.

She was a naturally affectionate person, that much was undeniable. Looking back on it, she had always been a little more touchy-feely with Aang than with anyone else, although she hadn't noticed it until she really took a minute to stop and think about it. Lately, however, it had gotten way out of control.

It had started during those weeks that she had cared for him after Azula's lightning strike. She could admit to herself that she had been ridiculously possessive of him during that time, hardly letting anyone else come near unless she absolutely _needed_ help to move him- and even then, she would only let Sokka help her. She had gotten used to having him all to herself, even if he wasn't really there with her. Now that he was awake and up and with them in spirit as well as in body once more... well, as desperately relieved as she was that he was okay, there was a part of her that missed the strange sort of intimacy that had come from caring for him that way.

Her wandering hands were the result. A reassuring hand laid on his shoulder when he was getting frustrated with the impossibility of their situation. Fingers that lingered a little longer than they needed to along his spine while she was working to heal the remnants of his wound. When he was stiff and wincing in pain from yet another of Toph's rigorous training sessions, somehow her hands were on his shoulders massaging away the tension in his body before she realized what she was doing.

And it wasn't just her hands, either. She had always loved hugging him, but she was doing it more now than ever before. A kiss on the cheek, which had once been a rare gesture reserved for moments when she was especially overwhelmed by him (or by her own inability to adequately convey her admiration for him any other way), became what seemed like an almost daily expression of affection. It was getting to the point that she didn't even really need a reason, although if she had one, she took it. Sometimes, though, she just wanted to see him blush.

She wanted to blame Aang for it, she really did. She wanted to say that it was all because he was tricking her into putting her hands all over him. She wished he was making up excuses to get her to touch him. It would be easier if she could claim that he was _deliberately_ being so cute with his scruffy mop of hair that she just had to run her fingers through it.

But the fact was, it wasn't Aang's fault. He hadn't done anything except to go right ahead and make her fall for him.

It was her own fault for dancing with him. She was sure she would have been just fine if she'd been able to resist that first, most significant temptation. She had tried her best, knowing how dangerous it was to get any closer than she already was, but the way he had looked at her that night... well, she was powerless to say no. After that, it was just a long slippery slope.

Katara was trying to keep to herself more than usual lately. She knew she needed to remove herself from him a little (just for now, just until the Day of Black Sun, when it would all be over), and the only way to do that was to keep her distance. As long as she kept away from the other three, from _him_, she was safe. She wouldn't do anything stupid and embarrass herself or make things awkward.

That was why she was out here this evening, sitting with her legs dangling over the edge of a low outcrop, staring up at the stars all by herself.

"Hey."

She jumped, and looked around. Aang was standing a few feet behind her, watching her with a bemused little smile on his face. She hadn't even heard him approach (then again, no one but Toph _ever_ heard him coming). Even the sight of him was enough to make her stomach fill up with butterflies and her heart do that warm flippy thing it had started lately.

_You really _do_ have it bad_, a little voice in the back of her mind prodded her.

Dismissing the thought as best she could, she offered him a tentative smile in return. "Hey."

"What are you doing all the way out here?" he asked.

She leaned back on the heels of her palms. "Watching the stars," she said. It was technically true.

His smile broadened into that crooked grin of his. "Mind if I join you?" he asked.

_Yes. Go away before I do something foolish._

"Sure, have a seat."

He crossed the distance between them and dropped down to sit beside her, closer than she had expected. She could feel his body heat. He leaned back, looking up at the sky as well, and said nothing.

This was something she liked about them. They could talk about anything, but they didn't have to. They were perfectly comfortable being quiet in each others' presence and it wasn't awkward. Usually, anyway. Although Aang seemed as much at ease as ever, she found herself hyper-aware of how closely they were sitting, and the way he smelled (rather pleasantly, in her opinion) of soil and sweat and the cheap incense he had bought in the last town they'd passed through. It was making her antsy.

She sat forward a little, settling her hands to her sides and clenching little handfuls of grass to keep them still.

"The stars are really bright tonight," she remarked, needing to break the silence and keep herself occupied.

Aang nodded. "Yeah. It hasn't been as humid today, so the air's clearer. Not as hazy."

"It's still nothing like back home," she said, a little morosely.

"Different constellations," he confirmed. "The stars are beautiful anywhere, but there's something special about the sky you grew up under, isn't there?"

She couldn't help the little smile, glad he understood what she meant. He was good at that.

"Do you know any of the constellations in this part of the world?" she asked.

"Not as well as I know the southern stars, but I know a few things. That little cluster of stars, the one that makes kind of a loopy S-shape, you see it right there? That's the Dragon Emperor." He leaned close to her in order to point out the line he was indicating, and Katara had to resist the sudden, powerful urge to rest her head on his shoulder. "He's the only constellation that appears fully in the sky above the Fire Nation year round, and according to an ancient legend, he's the guardian of the sun. Those two bright ones just off his tail are the eyes of the Phoenix Empress. The full constellation won't rise until the summer solstice, which is a big deal in the Fire Nation- Phoenix and Dragon in the sky together."

"You know a lot about this," she said softly. Sometimes it still surprised her how worldly Aang really was. For someone not quite two years younger than her, he had seen and learned an awful lot more about the world than she'd even had the opportunity to do until recently.

"The Fire Nation has a lot of really elaborate astrology myths," he explained. "Kuzon's aunt used to talk about it a lot."

"You miss it, don't you? The Fire Nation you remember..."

He glanced out the corner of his eye at her and their gazes met for a long moment; Katara felt her face heating up and prayed that the dim light and her complexion would hide the blush. Aang, apparently oblivious, just shrugged. "Yeah," he admitted, turning his face back to the sky. "It was so different back then. It was so... _alive_. Everything was colorful, and the people were so friendly, way friendlier than most of the Earth Kingdom. They had the most awesome festivals, too..." His expression was wistful, and sad. It was an expression she hated to see on his face and her arms itched with the urge to hug him. "I loved traveling here when I was a kid."

For once, she knew the perfect thing to say. "You still are a kid."

Aang whipped around to stare at her, his expression a little incredulous and more than a little delighted. His eyes seemed to ask, _'You remember that conversation?'_ And with her answering grin, she replied, _'Of course I do.'_

He let out a low chuckle, different from his usual wild laughter but equally as infectious, and she laughed softly with him.

"Seriously, though," she said, once her giggles had subsided. "It will come right again, just watch. You'll win this war and we'll put the Fire Nation back together again."

"You mean that?" he asked in wonderment.

She nodded.

The way he looked at her then was enough to take her breath away. His eyes were full of unconcealed emotion and he reached out to lay a hand softly over hers where it rested on the grass. Instinctively she twined her fingers through his, and he gave her hand a little squeeze.

"Thanks for sticking with me through all this, Katara" he said. "I couldn't have made it this far without you."

Maybe it was the softness in his eyes at that moment, or the way he was holding her hand as if it was the most natural thing in the world and not at all unusual for them, or the incredible sincerity in his words. Or maybe it actually was that his hair was really cute. Whatever brought her to the tipping point, something in Katara snapped quite abruptly. Those treacherous wandering hands of hers took the action she'd been steadfastly denying them for weeks, and she reached out to cup his cheek, turning his face towards her and pressing a kiss soundly to his lips.

It took what she was pretty sure was a solid minute for her head to catch up to her body and by the time she did the kiss was over, her lips were tingling, and those traitor hands of hers were shaking, even the one Aang still held in his. Reluctantly, she met his eyes, wondering what his reaction would be now that she'd gone right ahead and done what she swore she wasn't going to (yet).

Aang's bright eyes were round as saucers and he was staring at her with a baffled, but utterly delighted smile on his face that made her heart do that flippy thing again. "What?" he blurted out. "Where did that come from?"

Katara wanted to crawl into a hole and hide for a _week_. She was usually so careful around Aang- despite the wandering hands- and had been ever since what happened (or... _didn't_ happen, rather) with Jet. She'd done her best to keep this stupid, dizzying, _helpless_ infatuation to herself because they had bigger things to worry about... and now she'd gone right on ahead and blown all that hard work in one reckless second.

A part of her had taken note of the fact that if the breathtakingly happy look on Aang's face was anything to go by, her slip-up was entirely appreciated. So that answered that question, at least. She wasn't the only one with distracting, mushy things going on in her heart. But she wasn't _supposed_ to! This wasn't how this was supposed to happen!

"I didn't mean to do that," she mumbled, looking away in embarrassment.

His hand slipped out of hers very abruptly. "Oh," he said.

She risked a glance at him and saw that he was looking down, flushing a sullen shade of red and looking as heavily disappointed as he had seemed utterly thrilled just a few moments before.

If there was one thing she had never been able to stand, it was seeing Aang unhappy.

"No!" she blurted out hastily. "I didn't mean it like that, I just- I wanted... I-" The right words wouldn't come and she let out an exasperated groan. "Why is it so hard to just say what I mean?"

"It's okay," he said. "I, uh... I know all about not being able to say what you want to."

This wasn't at all the way this was supposed to go. It was all supposed to happen after the end of the war, and she was supposed to know exactly the right thing to say. She'd had some vague idea that there would be a celebration, she would be dressed beautifully and Aang would be back in Air Nomad colors like he ought to be, neither of them hiding in ill-suited red and black. She had envisioned taking his hand and pulling him away, out of the press of the crowd that wanted to thank him for saving them all, leading him off to some quiet corner. There would be a romantic confession, she would pour out her heart and ask if maybe, just maybe, he felt the same, and he would say yes and they would be together because the war was over and they had the whole future ahead of them to enjoy in peace...

_But maybe_, she thought as she met the hopeful gaze he was directing her way, _this is okay, too_.

She reached out and took his hand again, squeezing it gently and offering up a shy smile. He beamed back at her, and she scooted closer to him so that she could rest her head against his shoulder. She felt him tense up for just a moment, then he leaned his cheek against the top of her head and settled closer to her as well. Katara could practically _hear_ how hard he was smiling.

_Yeah. This is okay, too_, she decided.


End file.
